If you blinked, you very well may have missed the Junior Symphony Guild’s 2008 Designer Showhouse. It was open to the public for a period just shy of two weeks; in previous years, Showhouses had runs lasting a month or so.
However, those fortunate enough to have seen what teams of talented designers did to give the historic Phipps Tennis Pavilion a much-needed sprucing up are still talking about what an amazing transformation it was.
Built for the late U.S. Sen. Lawrence C. Phipps on the grounds of the storied Phipps Mansion in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood, the pavilion, which was completed in 1932, had grown a little raggedy around the edges in recent years thanks to wear and tear generated by wedding receptions, fund-raisers and other public events. Though the structure is owned by the University of Denver, attention to it had waned.
The senator and his wife, Margaret, had started the massive construction project in order to provide business and jobs during the Depression. The Tennis Pavilion was the first indoor court west of the Mississippi River. , and boasted an 8,000-square-foot tennis area, living room, gallery, kitchen, men’s and women’s dressing rooms, and an upstairs apartment.
The living room has stained glass windows and a winter mural by Colorado artist Allen True. The wall of windows in the gallery opens to an expanse of gardens.
A soda fountain that adjoins the small kitchen has wonderful history. The Phipps family tradition was to sign the walls of the soda fountain during their annual New Year’s party and other events throughout the year, and the signatures include famous tennis players from around the world and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Lawrence Phipps came to Denver from Pittsburgh, after retiring as a vice president of Carnegie Steel. Already a multi-millionaire in his mid-30s, he is said to have come to Colorado to “invest in health and happiness.” He married Margaret Rogers, with whom he had two sons, Gerald and Allen. Lawrence C. Phipps, Jr., from a previous marriage, moved with his father from Pennsylvania to Colorado.
Lawrence C. Phipps died in 1958. Margaret Rogers Phipps gave the Tennis Pavilion to the University of Denver in 1960 and then, with the concurrence of her sons, gave the mansion in 1964.
The opening gala, Fabulous 50 at the Phipps, also marked the JSG’s golden anniversary. Gala chairs were Carol James and Jane Wilson; Evelyn Wright, Sarah Omer, Andrea Kirchhoff and Jane Koerbel were the Showhouse chairs.
Twenty past presidents were at the gala, as were 19 of the 33 women who had served as Showhouse chairs over the years.Amy Blumental, who has worked on at least 20 Showhouses, flew in from her home in Charlotte, NC, to join in the festivities, while Scottie Button was there from Superstition Mountain, Ariz., and Linda Duncan traveled from Mableton, Ga.
It was a bittersweet night for Marie Belew Wheatley, who’d been married at Phipps Mansion 10 years to the day of the opening gala; sadly, her husband had died just weeks before the big night.
Past presidents there included Mary Lou Walters, Glenda Richter, Barbara Uhrich, Joan French, Linda Diekvoss, Michelle Austin, Linda Holben, Marla Gentry, JoAnn Gadkowski, and Chris Agnew.Ann Cole, who’d chaired the most succesful Showhouse, the Highlands Ranch Mansion, in 1986, had fun reminiscing with such other past leaders as Gail Berliner (1978), Mari Fountain (2004), Denise Sanderson (1993) and Linda Bryant (2002).
The guild’s public relations chair, Marcia Norman, loaned the gown she had worn for her 1951 wedding, to the cause. It was used to decorate the newly refurbished bride’s room.Pam Kelker was glowing from the numerous kudos she was receiving on the Herculean effort she put in re-doing the tennis court area; ditto for Richard White of HW Home, decorator for the balcony overlooking the indoor court.
“For a while, it looked like we might not have a Showhouse this year,” Jane Wilson said. “But with this being the guild’s 50th year, the members said this wasn’t the year to put the project on hiatus.”
Pure chance is how the Tennis Pavilion was selected. “I’d come out here to check it out as an event rental and immediately saw that it needed us,” she said. “So we lined up some decorators, who painted and sanded and cleaned before bringing in their merchandise; Marla and Dick Gentry donated drapery fabric from their Wesco Fabrics, and before long, the pavilion had its much-needed facelift.”
Others enjoying champagne and a Footers Catering buffet: Jim and Kate Taucher, Bob and Kathleen Reginelli, Tom Jensen, Sonny and Pam Wiegand, Lisa Merritt, and JSG president-elect Christine Thomas with hubby David.

Denver Post Society Editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com.

Pictures from the opening night gala can be viewed at www.denverpost.com/seengallery

Study after study has shown that when it comes to charitable fundraisers, Denver has more per capita than any comparably sized city in the nation. Joanne Davidson has been covering them for The Denver Post since 1985, coming here from her native California where she'd spent the previous seven years as San Francisco bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine.